Every employee is a brand ambassador - train them!

Most organizations, whether they’re strictly ‘listening’ or ‘engaging’, are becoming more and more comfortable with the ‘once-terrifying’ world of social media. Many have developed plans, purchased monitoring solutions and hired social media managers. And others are not too far behind.

Organizations have dipped their toe in and are ready for the next step…

But, as organizations have become more comfortable with social media, so have their employees.  Unfortunately however, not all employees have dedicated the same time and resources that their employers have when it comes to social media.

More specifically, employees have jumped in out of curiosity or fun on their own time. They haven’t developed contingency plans, or studied best practices for twitter. They partake in the space on their own time and don’t pretend to be a corporate spokesperson on their Facebook page. (or at least they shouldn’t be - that job is for the social media team.) They may or may not be disclosing information about their place of work and that’s their decision.

There aren’t rigid restrictions for recreational social media use – which is far different than corporate social media.

Okay…..? So what does this all mean?

Your employees aren’t only employees between 9 – 5. They go home and tweet, blog, post, like, comment, pin, etc. at their leisure. And when they do, they still represent your organization in some form or another. They are constant brand ambassadors.

That said, it doesn’t matter how good your social media team is because, ultimately, the social media managers/reps are not the only ones representing your brand online.

So what do you do? After all, you can’t stop employees from partaking in social media activities on their own time.

1. Train them.

- Setup a “best practices” lunch and learn.

- Teach them how to deal with negativity.

- Conduct exercises on social media etiquette.

2. Let them know they are constant brand ambassadors.

- Encourage them!

- Give them a list of Do’s, not Don’ts.

- Make sure they know why you hired a social media team. (Employees are ambassadors, but not corporate account holders. Stress that.)

3. Develop a social media policy for employees.

- “If you choose to speak about the organization, please disclose that you are an employee and that your opinions do not necessarily reflect those of your employers.”

(shoot me a message if you’d like to speak more on creating this for your organization.)

What do you think? Can you add any tips?

Who Funds the Social Media Budget: Sales or the Communications Team?

This week I wrote a guest post for PR at Sunrise. If you’ve ever thought about the social media budget (for organizations/brands), I think you should give it a read.

- AB

10 reasons why free social media monitoring tools don’t measure up

In the past we’ve talked a little bit about free vs. paid social media monitoring tools. And I’ve always said free is okay…. Only if you can’t afford paid. And although free sounds nice, I should emphasize the fact that they can’t do nearly as much as a paid service.

There are literally hundreds of free social media tools out there; some are strong and others fail miserably. But even most of the ‘good’ ones pale in comparison to a paid social media monitoring service. I suggest using the free ones as a complement to a paid service.

Here are 10 weaknesses of free tools:

1.      Most free tools can’t capture all mentions of your company, brand, products, competitors, issues, etc. (They usually track one keyword at a time.)

2.      Most free tools lack various sources to monitor. (They lack the twitter pipeline, or good blog crawlers, etc.)

3.      Most free tools can’t save searches to a dashboard. (You have to perform ad hoc searches each time you log in.)

4.      Most free tools don’t have a query and tag system. Or, should I say: advanced search criteria. The result is that most retrieve a lot of irrelevant results and spam.

5.      Most don’t have an accurate way of measuring sentiment, demographics, track conversations, gauge influence, etc.

6.      Most free tools don’t allow you to engage directly from the application. (You have to sign in to Twitter and then find the particular tweet to respond to, for example.)

7.      Most free tools don’t allow you to compare different results from different search terms and themes. (Is there a correlation between results?)

8.      Most free tools don’t allow you to add multiple users to the account or manage the workflow. (You will have to go offline to assign work to people.)

9.      Most free tools don’t archive results/searches from the past.

10.  Most free tools don’t offer support from a professional social media representative. (When you pay for a service, you usually get support from a professional.)

We don’t want to say that free tools are useless – in fact, many of them are actually pretty good. We just want you to know their limitations.

What do you think?…..

Enhancing your brand’s image on Twitter - 5 step checklist

Twitter has become one of the best online tools for companies looking to build and enhance a positive brand image.

But signing up for a Twitter account and sending Tweets that only link to your press releases or photo gallery doesn’t mean you’re using Twitter properly. Sure, you may have 500 or more followers and you appear to be active in the space, but there is more to positive digital posturing than just reiterating messages from your website.

So how should you use Twitter to enhance your brand’s image?

Here are 5 steps to help ensure your Twitter efforts are helping enhance your brand’s image and reputation. Just follow these (in this order) and you’ll be well on your way.

1.     Listen – Even before you start Tweeting, be sure to search for mentions of your brand and issues related to your industry. You may be surprised to see that not everyone loves your brand and/or your products. Listen to the conversations and then set up a spreadsheet that addresses all the different opinions people have towards your brand or company.

2.       Learn – After listening, you can start developing Tweets that address concerns or reiterate positive sentiment. If there are unanimous concerns about your brand or company, develop Tweets that answer questions and help you shape or reshape your brand’s image.

3.       Address and connect – Now you can start connecting. Address the concerns and praise your brand ambassadors. Send Tweets that answer questions and address concerns. You can even direct users to pages on your website that provide information on the products and services in question. Show the world that your brand is listening and ready to connect, publicly. People like being thanked on Twitter. Send ‘kudos’ Tweets and show your appreciation for those who invest time talking about your brand. Turn negative sentiment into positive connections.

4.       Monitor – After a few weeks of engaging on Twitter, monitor and analyze the new conversations about your brand. Has negative sentiment changed? Have people started talking positively about your brand? How successful were your efforts? Return to your original spreadsheet and input the new data. Keep a record of your efforts. This will help prove value and keep you on track.

5.       Repeat - Learn from the first round and continue connecting.

Following these tips/steps will help build a positive brand image and let you achieve your outlined objectives (whatever they may be).

What do you think? How do you evaluate your brand’s image?

How to become a ‘thought leader’

Earlier this week I noticed a lot of talk on twitter about some of the most overused words in PR. Words and expressions like unique, revolutionary, state-of-the-art and the like seemed to be on everyone’s list. But in my opinion, the most overused expression in PR is ‘thought leader.’

Much like respect, being a ‘thought leader’ needs to be earned, not proclaimed. Obviously, everyone wants respect just as much as they want to be considered a ‘thought leader.’ And in many ways, the two terms complement each other very nicely; when you earn one, you get the other.

So how do you become a ‘thought leader’ in your industry? Well, there are several ways to earn respect and thus, be considered a ‘thought leader’ in your industry. Here are my top 3 ways to gain ‘thought leader’ status.

1.       Produce good online content

Think of your website as your home. If you’re like most people, when you invite someone to your home, you make sure the house is clean, warm and welcoming. These steps should also be taken with your website, microsite or blog. Make sure the website architecture makes searching efficient and always give people a reason to stay on your site or come back frequently. This is done by looking at your website from an outside-in perspective. Anticipate what people want to see and address any questions they may have before they have a chance to ask them.

Fill your pages with relevant content and always think about quality over quantity; the best websites are usually the simplest. Think about the ‘bigger picture’ when talking about your products and services. How will these products and services help the consumer? How do they compare to your competitor’s? What is the current environment in the industry? What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? Etc.

2.       Sharing is caring (be a curator)

Nobody knows everything. When you don’t have the facts or stats to back something up, cite another source and use third-party references. If you can find the best material, and share it, it shows people that you know what you’re talking about and you’re not afraid to defer to others.

Just like writing an essay in high school and/or university, the strongest arguments are those that are substantiated by professional opinion and insight. For example, Men’s Health magazine is perceived as a leader in fitness, health and nutrition because they defer to expert opinion in all their columns and lessons.

You don’t always have to produce great work, finding and sharing great stuff works just as well.

3.       Seize opportunities to demonstrate knowledge

To be a ‘thought leader’ online, you need to be present in several forums. Listen to the conversations on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Google+, Quora, chat forums, etc. and when an opportunity to share insight presents itself, take advantage and answer questions. Without being too self-promotional (you’ll seem spammy if you only talk about your company), provide answers to questions and engage in the conversations.

By looking for opportunities to share your opinion and show your knowledge, you will quickly be considered a ‘thought leader’ in that particular industry.

2 quick examples: If you sell cars, look for opportunities to talk to people about the value of buying a fuel efficient car or cars with high safety ratings. Or if you sell homes, talk to people about the current state of the industry and why now would be a good time to buy or sell.

Give value and you’ll be respected.

There are several other ways to earn ‘thought leader’ status; I just think these are some of the easiest and quickest ways to get you started.

What do you think are some other ways?

Social Media Evaluation – what you should be measuring

As the world of social media continues to grow and gain acceptance in boardrooms across all industries, metrics and evaluation are becoming increasingly important.

After the C-Suite decides to embark on a social media campaign, they’ll want to gauge the success of the organization’s efforts. If you’re the community manager or social media specialist, you’ll be asked to report back to executives with numbers and stats. Embrace this challenge.

In the next post we’ll talk about the different tools you can use to examine your efforts and track your results. But before we talk about tools, let’s talk a bit about the theory behind ‘good evaluation.’

Don’t get hung up on numbers.

Too many people use the number of Twitter followers and Facebook ‘likes’ as a marker of success. Sure, they can paint a good picture and provide stats for your campaign. But, these numbers aren’t everything.

Rather than just counting ‘likes’ and followers, count the number of connections and conversations you’ve made with your various audiences. Have these connections delivered results? Even if a follower retweets one of your tweets, you’ve made a positive connection. After all, ‘connection’ and ‘engagement’ is what social media is all about.

So, when compiling your weekly, monthly and/or quarterly stats reports, ask yourself these questions and answer honestly:

1)      How many people have you connected with, one-on-one?

2)      How many retweets have you received?

3)      How many people have commented on your posts and online material?

4)      How many questions have you fielded?

5)      Have you received feedback for your products and services?

6)      How many public discussions have you created on your Facebook page/ blog posts?

If you just count followers and ‘likes’ you aren’t really measuring the success of your social media efforts. Anyone can increase their number of ‘likes’ and followers, but the level of engagement is what really matters.

Obviously you can keep track of followers and ‘likes’ but use these numbers as a supplement to the stats derived from the questions above.

Have I missed anything? Do you keep track of anything else?

How to get C-Suite buy-in for your social media plan

This week, I was fortunate enough to speak to an enthusiastic group of librarians and PR folks interested in starting a social media movement at their organizations.

I was free to speak about how I initiated a social media strategy for my organization and how these professionals can do the same for theirs.

I talked about objectives, tactics, audiences and overall theory. But, what really stood out as the focal point of the presentation was the way in which PR professionals and librarians can get corporate buy-in from the legal team and corporate executives.

Therefore, this post is dedicated to helping you achieve the ultimate goal for a social media effort, getting the ‘buy-in’ from the legal and executive teams.

So, how do you get the ‘green light’ for a social media campaign or plan?

There are 5 initial steps you need to take before you can even attempt to lobby the C-Suite for a Twitter account, blog or Facebook account. Below, you’ll find everything you need:

1.    Get the legal team on your side.

Many social media proposals falter at the legal level. Too many companies invest time and resources into creating the plan and not enough time working with the legal team from the get-go.

Rather than create the plan and then bring it to the legal department for approval, make the legal team part of the process, from the beginning. Let them express their initial concerns and address them in the actual planning process.

By getting legal on board, it will make C-Suite buy-in that much easier.

2.    Internal employee policy

Work with the HR folks and legal team to create a comprehensive social media policy for employees. This will help cover your bases and ensure the entire team is informed and onboard.

What’s acceptable behaviour for employees when using their personal accounts? What are they allowed to tweet or post to Facebook? Who is allowed to Tweet or post on behalf of the organization? Address these questions from the beginning and then you’re free to create a quality plan.

3.    Commenting guidelines for your blog

If you decide to start a corporate blog, set up guidelines for commenting and sharing. Let people know that everything will be moderated before it is posted and that defamatory, racist, derogatory, sexist, etc. comments will not be posted. Always reserve the right to moderate and remove comments at a later time, if need be.

Again, this keeps the legal team happy and makes C-Suite buy-in easier to attain.

4.    Risk mitigation plan - preapproved messages 

Set up a list of preapproved messages and tweets for employees speaking on behalf of the organization. Legal should approve these messages from the start.

This step helps keep ‘control’ of what is being said on behalf of the organization, at all times.

If the messages can be fluid and interchanged, they won’t seem overly ‘canned.’

Also, in order to diffuse a potentially negative situation, make sure the social media team is trained to deal with negative comments. Give them a plan and let them steer conversations in the ‘right’ direction.

5.    Contingency plan - Advisory board

Before something goes wrong, organize an advisory board so that potentially negative situations can be quickly diffused. Have a contact point for all departments within the organization and use them whenever you need specific expertise and/or information.

If something doesn’t work out and a negative situation is imminent, have a plan B and plan C to use, if need be.

Once all these steps have been addressed, take your plan to the C-Suite. Essentially, these 5 steps will answer all the possible questions and concerns the C-Suite may have… before they have them.

If you have any questions, or need a step-by-step tutorial on how to create each plan or undertake each process, send me a message; I’d love to help

Choosing the right tactics for your social media plan

In previous posts we talked about constructing a social media plan and all its parts. Obviously, at some point, once all the strategies have been developed and all the audiences have been defined, it’s time to ‘let the rubber meet the road.’

By ‘rubber meeting the road’ we mean you need to choose and use the tactics that will carry out your social media plan effectively.

Tactics are your tools.

Will you choose to reach out to your audience on Facebook? Twitter? Blog? LinkedIn? Foursquare/Gowalla? Or a group buying site like Groupon?

Simply put, you need to choose tactics/tools that best meet the needs of your target audience and help fulfill your overall social media objectives.

Below are a few examples and cases that will help you out:

1.    If you are targeting middle-aged, affluent professionals, LinkedIn may be the best choice.

2.    If you are trying to increase sales and promote a new product, Groupon may be the most suitable tactic.

3.    If you are trying to establish your brand as an industry leader, writing a blog would be a wise move.

4.    If you are trying to provide superior customer service and reach out to people with questions about products in your industry, a Twitter account would work well.

Basically, what we are saying is that you need to have an ‘outside in’ perspective towards your brand. Where is your audience? And what’s the best way to connect with them? Look at it from your customer’s and/or potential customer’s angle and address their needs/concerns.

We should also mention that when choosing tactics, a quality over quantity approach is the best way to move forward. Don’t enter every forum or use every tactic; bite off what you can chew and chew it well.

Everything you do in social media should have a purpose and an end goal. 20 positive connections in one forum are far more effective than 2 connections in 5 forums.

Keep it simple and whatever you do, do it well.

Defining Your Social Media Plan’s Objectives

Defining and setting objectives for your social media presence may be the most important step in creating a solid plan.

With objective setting, don’t think of it as HOW you’re going to ‘do’ social media, think of it as WHY you’re engaging in social media.

Too many companies jump into Facebook or use Twitter without defining their objectives. In doing this, these companies aren’t maximizing their performance online; they are wasting time and resources without really seeing any return on investment.  

So what does objective setting mean?

It means asking yourself and your team WHY the company needs to be using social media. By asking WHY, it becomes much easier to develop strategies, choose tactics and assess performance.

Here are 3 steps to help you develop objectives:

Ask yourself:

1) What do you want to accomplish?

- Do you want to increase the number of sales leads?

- Reach a new demographic?

- Strengthen customer service?

- Position your company as an industry leader?

- Promote your products?

2) What does success look like?

- Increase sales?

- Build a stronger following?

- Change brand perceptions?

- Satisfy customers by making positive connections?

3) How will you measure success?

You’ll need to periodically assess the performance of your social media efforts in order to keep the C-Suite happy and keep your team on track.

Ask for customer feedback, take polls, look at the sales figures and assess online sentiment. All these methods will help you quantify and qualify your efforts.

There you have it – objective setting 101. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Target an audience (second part in your social media plan)

Having specific objectives, a content strategy and a strong handle on the tactics is important to your social media plan.

 But, recognizing your audience is critical to your social media plan.

 Your audience will ultimately dictate the success of your business – you can’t make a buck without enticing people to buy your products or services. Even more importantly, you need to target the RIGHT people and know where to invest your time and resources.

 What I’m trying to say is that making $1000 via social media is great, but if it cost you $900 in resources to find those deals, you haven’t done that well. 

 So make sure you know who to target and speak with from the start. Don’t waste time and resources trying to find your audience while your plan is being executed. Sure, you can alter the ‘audience focus’ down the road, but ensure you know who you are targeting before you get started.

 How do you define audience?

 There are a few ways to segment and target your audience. It’s not enough to just say I want to reach “customers” or “the public” or “men.” After all, you aren’t defined as just “human” and neither are your audience members.

 Demographics

- Age?

- Gender?

- Income?

- Race?

- Education?

 Psychographics

- How does they think?

- Do they care about form or function?

 Geographics

- Where are they located?

 Great, but how do I find this stuff out?

Monitoring! This is where you really need to make use of your ‘listening’ tools. By listening to the online conversations you will start to understand where your best consumers (and thus audiences) are hanging out.

 Sure, you won’t be able to answer all the above questions in the Demographics and Psychographics sections, but that’s okay.

 As long as you start to see trends and patterns in your target audience, then you’re golden.

 Once you figure out your target, continue developing your plan with your audience in mind.

 We’ll talk about objectives next week! Stay tuned!